Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals preview, Monday 6/23, 6:45 CT

The Cubs finally meet their arch-rivals.

Today’s roster move: Here

Monday notes…

• WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN, OLD FRIEND?: Tonight’s game will tie for the latest first meeting of the Cubs and Cardinals in a season that began on schedule. They also first met on June 23 in 1997. That was the Cubs’ 74th game. Tonight’s will be their 78th. The teams did not face one another until June 14 in 1985 (57th game), June 10 in 1983 (54th), June 2 in 2022 (51st) and June 1 in 1990 (48th). In the pandemic-delayed 2020 season, their first game was on Aug. 17. It was the Cubs’ 20th game.
• KING TUCK: Kyle Tucker, last nine games since June 12: .375/.459/.688 (12-for-32) with four doubles, two home runs, five walks and eight runs scored.
• THE McGUIRE FILES: Reese McGuire has a seven-game on-base streak in which he is batting .320/.370/.600 (8-for-25) with a double, two home runs and five runs scored.
• THIS DAY IN CUBS HISTORY: Chris Denorfia’s sacrifice fly scored Matt Szczur with the only run of the game in a 1-0, 10-inning win over the Dodgers. Four Cubs pitchers held L.A. to three hits. It happened 10 years ago today, Tuesday, June 23, 2015.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Cardinals lineup:

Ben Brown, RHP vs. Matthew Liberatore, LHP

As you know, Ben Brown has had his share of good outings this year (four in which he’s thrown at least six innings and allowed two or fewer runs). And… he’s had his share of bad outings, too (four times he’s allowed six or more runs).

Here’s hoping this is one of the “good” category. He has never faced the Cardinals or anyone on their active roster.

Matthew Liberatore was the Rays’ first round pick out of high school in Arizona in 2018, the year the Cubs chose Nico Hoerner in the first round.

He was traded to the Cardinals in 2020 in the deal that sent Randy Arozarena to Tampa Bay. It has taken him a while to establish himself in the Cardinals rotation; this is his first year as a fulltime starter.

He was doing pretty well until the end of May, but has an 8.10 ERA and 1.600 WHIP over his last four starts. Last year he made five relief appearances against the Cubs covering four innings, with a 0.00 ERA and six strikeouts.

Baseball Savant

Baseball Savant

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. You can find out if Marquee is available via a provider in your area here.

Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Cardinals site Viva el Birdos. If you do go there to interact with Cardinals fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.

The 2025 Game Thread procedure will be identical to last year’s.

You’ll find the game preview posted separately on the front page two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).

At the same time, a StoryStream containing the preview will also post on the front page, titled “Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of week/date) game threads.” It will contain every post related to that particular game, including the First Pitch Thread and the overflow thread, as well as the recap when it’s published. The recap will also live on the front page as a separate post.

You will also be able to find the preview, First Pitch Thread and the overflow thread in the box marked “Chicago Cubs Game Threads” at the bottom of the front page (you can also find them in this section link). The StoryStream for each game can also be found in that section.

The First Pitch thread will post at five minutes before game time, then an overflow thread at 90 minutes after the scheduled game time.

Discuss amongst yourselves.